Kodiak Haakansons: Essaouira

Essaouira (pronounced Asa-weera)- We’d heard heard about the beauty of this town from our Moroccan friend Sonya as well as other friends who had traveled here. Our guide book mentioned that this was the only place in Morocco to be even remotely described as ‘laid-back’. Part of this feeling is from its position as a ‘hippy’ destination (Jimi Hendrix came here in the 70s and subsequently a nearby village turned into a drug colony of sorts). Essaouira has an interesting history- for over a thousand years it was a powerful port, trading in purple mollusks (to make a dye that the Romans loved). The Portuguese established a major trading port here in the 1400s, but the town itself was not properly constructed until the 1700s when it was planned (the only officially ‘planned’ town in Morocco!) and constructed with the aide of a French architect (thus, the streets are logical and straight!). Anyways, looking at photos was making us excited to go there so we got up and out by 10 am to make the three hour drive from Marrakesh to the coast where we would stay for two nights.

Along the way we saw a few interesting things- hundreds of sheep, often stuffed in bike baskets or in carriages, or tied to the top of cars (see earlier posting), goats in trees eating argan nuts (apparently this does happen sometimes un-aided, but in this case it was someone who had tied his goats into the tree and when anyone stopped to take a picture he could demand money), and we stopped in an women’s Argan oil cooperative. The Argan oil cooperatives are a popular phenomenon in Morocco. Women are able to add a bit to their family’s income while being in a safe, all-female environment. Women are also able to make high-quality Argan products, as the oil is made by hand using stone tools and all profit is split between the women in the cooperative. We received a tour then at the end were treated to mint tea and bread to dip in oil and a honey/ oil/ ground nut combination that was delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed this stop as the women were wonderful to watch and visit with, and they were obviously happy to have little kids in to their workshop. And we left with a couple of bottles of the sweet nut dip so we were happy too.

For lunch we were able to make a visit to one of Essaouira’s sea-front seafood restaurants where we did the point, grunt and bar-b-que thing to get our food. It was messy and lovely. Afterwards we took a quick walk along the waterfront to marvel at the deep blues of the boats and to see the wooden-shipbuilding operation in full view. Fantastic!

Since the old town is pedestrian only we found a guy with a cart to carry the luggage to our riad (and he plopped the kids in there too). As we walked through the streets we noticed the same intense colors, sounds and energy of Marrakesh, but tempered with a more relaxed sea-side vibe. Nice. And our riad was fantastic! Gorgeous wooden-beamed ceilings, authentic iron-work and amazing tile work everywhere. The kids saw that they had a desk in their room and immediately got out their homework and ignored us for a while. Eventually we went out for a walk through the town, enjoyed yet another tagine with couscous, and Bella found a camel painting for her room.